


Congratulations! Now, I hate you

by PDUGGIRA



Category: olicity - Fandom
Genre: Arrow - Freeform, Gen, olicity - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-03
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-03-28 20:09:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 16,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3868180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PDUGGIRA/pseuds/PDUGGIRA
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Olicity forced into getting married. A hate filled relationship blossoms into a partnership. I suck at summaries. Set after 2.01. In this version, Felicity did not exist in the first season.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Felicity Smoak dreamt of this day. Sure, she dreamt of the world’s best gadgets or even winning a date with Mark Zucherberg so she can discuss everything that is wrong with Facebook. But ever since she discovered love, she dreamt of this day. Her wedding.

She was already dressed. She looked around her bridal suite at her friends who were busy putting finishing touches on their make-up. All except one…her Man of Honor, Jason Hong. Her ex-boyfriend turned best friend was her rock in this situation. He was not very excited to have this honor but he accepted it and vowed to do his best. Her other two bridesmaids were her childhood friends, Sara and Naomi. They’d attending high school together. All three girls were ambitious and ended up in different universities pursuing their careers, but they kept in touch and whenever they met, it was like nothing had changed. Watching her friends and her surroundings, Felicity let out a deep sigh. 

Her sigh caught Jason’s attention. He put his phone away and walked other with Sir Bernardo Barkinson in his arms and Murphy following close behind. Bernie and Murphy were about to be euthanized when Felicity and Jason adopted them in Los Angeles. When their relationship ended and Felicity moved to Starling, she took them with her. Now, they were going to be a part of the wedding. Bernie was a little Shih Tzu mix with only three legs, but he walked around like he owned the place wherever he went. What he lacked in size, he made up for in attitude. He had a little bowtie around his neck. Murphy, a female Lhasa, had little white ribbons around her ears and she was brimming with energy. 

Jason’s eyes narrowed as he approached Felicity. “Babe, you sure you want to do this?” he asked. “Say the word, and I’ll take care of everything.”

“Of course, I do!” she replied. He didn’t seem to budge. “You’re just jealous I’m not marrying you!” she said playfully. 

He gave her a once over. She was wearing a dress that according to Jason was “totally not her,” but it was an exquisite dress, or at least the girls thought so. Maybe it was something Felicity might’ve liked, but her posture in the dress made him think otherwise. It was a one-of-a-kind custom Marchesa masterpiece. It was a strapless tulle ball gown dress with a sweetheart neckline, tiered handkerchief drape skirt and delicate floral threadwork embroidery. She looked beautiful in it, but he knew her. She’s probably knock over everything in her vicinity walking in that dress. (Felicity's wedding gown -> https://www.pinterest.com/pin/174514554287886335/)

A loud knock on the suite door interrupted Jason’s thoughts. “Alrighty! Time to get this show on the road!” said a hyper-excited smartly dressed middle-aged woman, Liona Paul, they were forced to put up with. She walked in the suite like she owned it and started giving a once over to all the members of the wedding party. 

She checked Sara, Naomi, and Jason’s outfit’s one at a time and when she decided everything was in order, she slowly made her way to Felicity. “Now, let me look at you,” she said in a more “you-better-look-beautiful-cause-I-need-this-to-be-perfect” than a motherly “this-is-the-biggest-day-of-your-life” tone. 

Felicity expected as much from the PR Head of Queen Consolidated. She was marrying Oliver Queen, playboy turned CEO of QC right after his return from the dead. While this “arrangement” was primarily for her protection according to an uncle she hated with every fiber of her being, it also came in handy to help restore Oliver’s image. Though the work he had been doing with his new company under the guidance of Mr. Steele was good, a man in love was a story the press would eat up. Especially after, according to the tabloids, his short-lived relationships with a police officer and the daughter of the head of the Italian mob. And so, QC’s PR team took full advantage. They planned everything. Felicity and Oliver insisted on not having any other events preceding their wedding except the wedding itself. It was one of the only things they actually did agree on. 

So this day was “the” day. Felicity didn’t say much over the past three weeks as Liona took over planning the wedding, picking her dress, and even her lingerie for the wedding night, NOT that she was going to use it, but according to the world, she fell head over heels in love with Oliver Queen. She was more than happy to sit back and sulk. She was a proud woman. Losing her father at a young age broke her, but her mother never gave up on her and gave her all the opportunities she could dream of. She lived a decent life. Not as luxurious as the Queens, but all her needs were met. Her mother helped create and run an organization specialized in helping victims of human trafficking. 

Her entire life in Los Angeles was spent either in school or at work with her mother. She realized at a very young age that she loved putting the oddest of things together to create something useful. Her love for robotics and programming led her to MIT. She returned to Los Angeles and worked in different companies, studying and learning from their business structures. A few weeks shy of her 24th birthday her mother passed away leaving her organization in the hands of a distraught Felicity. Her mother’s death set off the chain reaction that led her to move to Starling and opening her own company, Smoak Inc., in a warehouse-turned-loft in the Glades. Her headquarters of her mother’s organization, Coalition to Abolition Slavery and Trafficking (CAST), moved with her. 

As Felicity turned to face Liona, she put on her mask. She could tell the woman was scrutinizing every inch of her outfit and did not find any thing out of place. 

Liona let out a breath and said, “ I know this is last minute, but there’s been a change.”

“Want kind of change?” she quizzed. Please tell me the wedding is off. Please tell me the wedding is off.

“It seems Ms. Queen is in a better state and it would look great if she was your maid of honor. It’s a little cliché, but you’ll look like a happy family, especially with Moira…” 

She nodded, cutting off Liona’s sentence. She didn’t care enough to argue. She was just about to ask what Jason was going to do –

“Jason here can walk you down the isle. That way, no one will wonder why your ex-boyfriend is so close to you. If he gives you away, it sends a different message.”

“That’s ok, I’ll just sit down with the guests—“ Jason interrupted. 

“No,” she said, as she mustered up the courage to let her courage accept defeat. She needed to sound excited. “I would love for you to walk me down the isle Jason,” she said. She turned to Liona, “where is Thea?”

“Right here,” came a voice from behind Liona. Standing there with the bridal bouquet in her hands, with a hint of a smile on her face, was Thea Queen. 

With that piece of encouragement, Liona started moving everyone out of the suite. 

“Come on ladies…and…man. Limo’s are waiting outside.”

Felicity looked at herself on last time in the floor length mirror once everyone left the suite holding up her hand, looking at the engagement ring Oliver placed on her finger four weeks ago. She looked at herself in the mirror and spoke, “ I’m marrying a gorgeous man who also happens to be a deadly Bratva Captain because my not so likeable uncle thinks someone is out to kill me and I have no choice because the only alternative would be me being locked in freakish Game of Thrones-like dungeon in Russia.” She wasn’t done yet. She continued, “Again, I’m marrying a gorgeous man. My ex-boyfriend, who I wanted to be my husband for four years of my life, is walking me down the isle. I’m wearing 4-inch Christian Louboutin heels which is a disaster waiting to happen if my history wearing heels has anything to do with it. I know more about Liona, the snake, than I do about my future husband. Phew!” She takes a deep breath and continues, “I’m marrying a gorgeous man. A lot of women have to faced worse. Right?” she asked her reflection, and continued, “Right. What’s the worst that could happen?” convincing herself. And with that she squared her shoulders, put on her game face, and walked towards her not-so-pleasant future.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The wedding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the kudos! I absolutely love OLICITY and although I am by no means a writer, this is me living my dream of obliquity vicariously through fan fiction. If you like it, please leave a review or a kudos. 
> 
> Again, I am no writer, so try not judge me too much.

The limo pulled into Starling City Contemporary Museum of Art and the bridal party made its way to the room sealed off for privacy. “The greatest artistss will be blessing the beautiful couple. Isn’t that so romantic?” Liona’s words. Blessing my ass! I don’t care. At least, that is what she kept telling herself. She cautiously stepped into the room to avoid being spotted by the groom. Bad luck, and all – huh, bad luck wouldn’t grace me with his presence if I promised to kiss him in the face. Because, of course, “bad luck” is a “he.” Only a man could fuck up a woman’s life this way. – she thought to herself. 

She was brought out her musings when a small hand touched her shoulder. She turned around to find Thea watching her closely. A myriad of emotions flashed through her face, but finally she spoke, “ Felicity, I know I’ve only met you once and I wasn’t very nice—“

“You called me a gold-digging whore,” quipped Felicity. No need for beating around bush is there?

Thea’s mouth hung open, almost as if to apologize, but she closed it and opened it again to speak. “It wasn’t fair to you. I just don’t understand why Ollie is insisted the wedding happen so fast! I mean, our mom is in jail. I just thought,” she paused, “what I was planning on saying was…When Ollie came back, he came back, but he didn’t come back to me. And with my mom…well, I’m learning to accept who they are now. So this is me saying that I would like to get to know you better. I’d…I would really like to have a sister.” She looked up at Felicity with her big round chocolate brown eyes. So vulnerable, yet so filled with hope. In that moment, Felicity saw her mother’s face. Sitting in a hospital bed knowing she won’t make it past the night, her mother hoped and prayed her daughter would one day find love and with love…would come a family. This girl standing in front of her was offering a true relationship. Not an agreement like Oliver Queen. At that moment, her heart won over her mind and leaned in to hug her. She felt Thea relax in her embrace. When she pulled back, her face was full of excitement. 

“Okay. Let’s get you out there. My brother is waiting.” She reached for her bouquet and within minutes, she was walking down the aisle. 

Jason slowly walked up to her and nudged her. She took his arm while holding her bouquet waiting for Liona to signal for them to start walking. “You look beautiful, Fe,” whispered Jason. She turned to face him and choked up. Her mother made her promise to never accept anything but the purest form of love. That was the reason why she had broken up with Jason. 4 years they had spent together, but Jason never said “I love you.” Coming from a broken family himself, he never thought those words were important. And talking about marriage was just frustrating to him. “I know you’re settling for me, Fee. You have more men out there that can give you something I cannot give,” he would say. He was so torn by his childhood that he could never believe she loved him enough.

In her head, she knew he loved her, so she stayed. She saw his love for her in his actions. The late night trips he would take to bring her mint-chip, the times he would walk the dogs even when it was her turn just so she could sleep in that day. When she made her mother that promise, she knew what her mother had meant. She needed to love herself enough to let him go. She didn’t want to accept anything but the purest form of love, and to her, love meant commitment by default. It might not be marriage, it might just be being together, being there for each other, supporting each other, but there would be no doubt in her mind about the strength of the relationship. After four years, she still wasn’t sure if Jason would ever be ready to marry her. It wasn’t that she wanted to get married that soon. She was only 22 then. But if she loved him and he loved her, then she shouldn’t be thinking about it. She would be happy. But she wasn’t. And so that relationship ended. It ended on the best of terms though. Jason had always told her that he would be there for her no matter what and the guy actually meant it. He was there for her when her mother passed, when she moved to Starling, when she looked for office space…he was there. 

Four years later, she was standing dressed in couture getting married to one of the most eligible bachelors in the country and it was all a lie. Now, a man she broke up with, even though she knew he loved her, because he couldn’t commit to her was walking her down the isle towards a man who most certainly did not love her but had no trouble committing to something as monumental as marriage. In his defense, marriage might not be something life changing when compared to being stranded on a remote island in the China Sea. 

 

Letting a deep breath out and focusing very hard on placing one foot in front of another, she was walking through a glade in which planted flowers and hanging garlands conferred with a riot and a sense of undulation. “Do not let me fall,” she whispered, keeping her lips sealed in an attempt to conceal her actions. When she didn’t get a reply, she looked sideways, only to find Jason in awe. She followed his gaze and to her surprise…her mouth dropped in the shape of an “o”. 

They had reached the end of the glade, which opened into the large expanse of space preciously used to house various sculptures. White wisteria was cascading from the high ceilings while multiple crystal chandeliers emerging from among the wisteria right along the aisle. It looked like white wonderland. A little too plain for Felicity’s taste, but beautiful nonetheless. As she walked down the aisle, she refused to look at the man standing at the end of the aisle. She focused on the aisle. It was a very interesting aisle. Very white. Very clean. Kinda like my dress. White. Oh so white. Clean. What others words can I use to describe this? Huh…I need to up Words with Friends routine. Her internal musings ended when Jason said, “She gives herself, freely,” and began to let go of her. Reluctantly, she let go and took her place in front of Oliver, still trying to NOT look at him. 

The minister began enthusiastically, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today to join Felicity Megan Smoak and Oliver Jonas Queen in holy matrimony…” Her mind trailed off. She didn’t hear anything except for the faint buzz in her ears. She was brought back when Thea held out a ring for her. She took the thick platinum wedding band from the box in Thea’s hand and stared at it in an attempt to avoid Oliver’s eyes again. The priest continued, “I, Felicity Megan Smoak, take you Oliver Jonas Queen,”

“I, Felicity Megan Smoak, take you, Oliver Jonas Queen,” she repeated.

“To be my lawfully wedded husband, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and obey; from this day forward until death do us part.”

She took a deep breath and finally looked up at her groom. For the first time that day, she looked into her soon-to-be husband’s eyes. She hated him for giving into her uncle’s request. He clearly could’ve put up a fight. She tried to express her hatred for him through her eyes, but he was…smiling. Not smiling smiling, but fake smiling. It didn’t help her rage to know he was unhappy with this arrangement as well. If only, it made it much worse. 

The priest cleared his throat, jolting her out of her rage filled gaze. She plastered a love-sick smile on her face and repeated, “To be my lawfully wedded husband, in sickness and in health, to love, and cherish; from this day forward until death do us part.” 

Oliver’s eyebrow hiked up at her obvious deletion of the word “obey” in their vows. God this woman will be the death of me. His part of the vows went on without incident.

“…man and wife. You may kiss your bride.”

Oliver’s blue eyes are completely focused on her. Anyone from the audience would totally believe he was completely and hopelessly in love with his bride, but she could see it. The sadness. Well-hidden behind number of walls was deep sadness, and for a moment, she recognized a reflection of her own despair in him. 

He was holding her hands tenderly. Looking at her, as though asking for permission. She gave a slight nod in response and in that instant; a new persona takes over him. He pulls her into his embrace. Their bodies close, her arms are around his waist while he holds her head carefully between his hands, low on the sides of her skull and jaw. He was taking control of her, of the kiss. Damn, that’s hot. Their lips meet, and his taste is minty…almost safe. He pulls away briefly after a second and she wonders if a wedding kiss, especially from playboy billionaire Oliver Queen should be so short and chaste, but he grins. Oh jeez! Why? Why did my fake husband have to be so gorgeous? She is so close; she can physically feel his grin against her lips. Then his hands, one on her waist and the other on her head, pull her into a dip, and he kisses her again – this time, its deeper and she tries extremely hard not to be overpowered by the tingly sensation in her stomach. She is vaguely aware of flashbulbs going off, presumably from one of the professional photographers Liona had hired for the perfect picture of the perfect couple. 

The guests, ninety percent of whom she doesn’t even recognize, cheered wildly. They slowly parted. Eye’s fixed on each other, hands still clasped. Oliver looks at her in awe for a second before his arrogant billionaire façade takes hold of his face. And just like that, she finds herself walking down the aisle with him by her side as the happy couple is showered with loose white rose petals.


	3. 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post-Wedding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DO YOU WANT ME TO CONTINUE? PLS COMMENT SO I KNOW.

Oliver Queen never dreamt of marriage. Hell, he cheated on Laurel when she asked him to move in with her. Ollie never thought of marriage. He only wanted one thing from a woman, and that was usually served to him on a platter. Thinking back, Oliver knew “Ollie” would’ve gotten married eventually, but since the island, he cannot imagine it. He fully accepted his life as the vigilante, as the Arrow, and dedicated his life and his soul to corrected his father’s mistakes and saving his city. Now that the Glades was in shambles, both Oliver Queen and the Arrow needed to up their game. That meant, no personal connections. He couldn’t afford them. He was human though. Once in a while, during his conversations with Diggle, his partner/bodyguard would tell him that there is more to life. In that moment, only for a moment, he would dream of a future with the woman who kept him alive all those years away from his home. Laurel. Then, in a moment, he would push that moment away and lock it up in a box stowed in some unknown corner of his brain. They had gone down that path a few months ago and then, Tommy died. Now, the guilt tarnished any chance of a relationship between them. Not that he wanted one anymore, not when his double life was still very much in action. 

And yet, here he was…married to a woman all right. A stubborn, hotheaded woman who was quickly becoming a giant pain in his ass. Felicity. Felicity Smoak. He’d married her to honor a promise he made to Anatoli. Felicity was his niece and she needed protection. Why? Anatoli would not tell him. All he said was that she needed his protection. Not normal protection, but the protection that comes with being a Bratva wife. He accepted. Maybe a bit too easily. Why didn’t he fight Anatoli? A multitude of reasons. Queen Consolidated was in bad shape and he needed to protect his legacy. A meeting with the PR team head ,Liona, made it pretty obvious that she did not approve of him being the CEO, especially with his playboy image. She told him to get his act together. Sure, marriage was a leap, but it was also an easy fix. He didn’t need to try that hard to sell the image of losing his playboy image. Anatoli’s request offered him that chance. Plus, having a wife would mean he had legitimate excuses for his vigilante activities. 

Letting out a sign, he sank down on his bed, lying flat on his back. His bed. His room. Felicity, his wife, was in her room. Down the hall. In the master bedroom. In a loft, no less. A loft that she insisted on renting because she refused to live in Queen Mansion. Truthfully, he was relieved. He did not want to live in the mansion. With his mother in prison and Thea’s new boyfriend, he was often alone in the mansion. Being alone never bothered him, but the mansion brought back memories, of his father, Tommy, and Ollie. So here they were renting a loft in the corner of the Glades instead of buying it outright. Felicity insisted on renting and before Oliver could offer to buy the place, she shut him up with a “I know you have money Queen. But I am not living in place YOU own. I want to have equal rights on the place. We will rent and I will pay my half. End of conversation.” The woman infuriated him, but at least she had good taste. The loft she picked, because Oliver didn’t want to argue with the hothead, was a spacious 3,800-square-foot penthouse with an outdoor garden. The main door opened into the living room with a large open kitchen with granite counter-tops on the left and large panel windows leading to the outdoor garden to the right. On the other side of the loft were the three bedrooms. Oliver had wanted to ask her which one she wanted, but Felicity, of course, didn’t even give him a chance to speak. When they moved in their things a few days before the wedding, she made a beeline for the master bedroom.  
“You seem to wear the same clothes half the time I see you. I clearly need more closet space.” That was the last time he saw her before the wedding. Now, 6 hours after saying “I do”, he was lying in bed in his room in a loft he shared with his wife and her two dogs. Her stubbornness would work to his advantage. Sleeping in separate rooms was even better. He could sneak in and out, and considering she hardly ever says a word to him unless provoked, he didn’t even have to answer to anyone. A violent buzz woke him from his preoccupied haze. He picked up his phone to find an alert from Diggle. 

“Lance wants to have a word.”

Letting out another sign, he changes out of his tuxedo into a pair of jeans and a Henley. He slowly opens his bedroom door and makes it to the front door when he feels…something by feet. Alert, he looks down to find Felicity’s dog, Murphy, looking up at him with her big brown eyes. She whimpers and nudges his leg with her nose, wagging her tail in full speed. He bends down to pet her. 

“Hey girl, what is it?” 

She just nudges him again and looks at the door. He wonders if she is asking for a walk, but he doesn’t know if he should. Instead, he walk to the sliding door that opens to the outdoor garden and slides it just enough to give her room to outdoors and do her business, and come back in. She follows him but doesn’t move. 

“Okay, I really cannot take you out with me.”

She continues looking at him and wagging her tail. He gives up. He slowly picks her up and makes his way to the master bedroom. The door is slightly open, probably how Murphy got out…he lays her down in the room, careful not to go into the room lest he wake up Felicity, and swiftly moves to close the door. Within a minute, he is out of the loft. Lance better have some morons I can beat up. He gets on his bike and drives into the night.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity bonds with Thea.
> 
> Reviews are life! Please let me know what you think. I'm not much of a writer and I know its not nearly as good as the other writers on this site, but this is my attempt to cope with my olicity angst. 
> 
> Your comments and reviews provide incentive to continue!
> 
> Follow me on Twitter in you're a member of the twitter universe @totallypriyanka

Five weeks. That’s how long it had been since Felicity Smoak became Felicity Smoak-Queen. In a span of five weeks, she had grown closer to her sister-in-law, Thea. Shortly after being kidnapped and then, rescued by the Hood, the young Queen spent more time visiting her mother in prison and using any spare time she had trying to get to know Felicity. 

The first time she connected with the younger Queen was the night of Moira’s pre-trial motion. Shocked as she was by the district attorney’s decision to seek the death penalty, Thea had put on a brave face after the trial when Oliver left her side. She buried herself in work and tried to keep her mind off of her mother. That night, as she continued managing Verdant and loud music played around her, she tried to lose herself in the crowd. She danced until her feet hurt and suddenly had the urge to get lost in a trance only a drug could provide. Spotting a former friend who frequently carries drugs, she made her way to the alley about to speak to him. 

“Thea!” shouted Roy from the bar, immediately stepping away and following her. Getting a hold of her arm, he drags her away from the junkie. “What do you think you’re doing?”

She broke down in his arms, gasping for air while she cried her eyes out and buried her head into Roy’s chest. Roy tried soothing her but nothing changed. Feeling helpless, he slowly rocked her back and forth and asked her, “What can I do to help you?”

“I….want…Ollie” she mumbled as she struggled to control her emotions. 

Within the next ten minutes, Roy found himself supporting Thea as she held onto his frame, still sobbing, and knocking on the door to Oliver’s loft. He heard sounds on the other side of the door. A minute later the door opened and there in front of him was a very pissed Felicity Smoak with a blanked wrapped around her, flanked by her dogs. With her hair pulled up in a messy bun, she looked like she could snap his neck for interrupting whatever it is she was doing. Her hard stare softened when she laid eyes of Thea’s form. Her eyes travelled back to Roy, silently questioning him. 

Clearing his throat, Roy continued, “Erm…Thea wanted to speak to Oliver. I…uh…tried calling him, but he didn’t answer, so I brought her here.”

Felicity opened the door further allowing Roy to come in but Murphy starting barking and jumping up and down. Roy stood his ground. 

“It’s okay. She won’t bite. You’re just a stranger, so she is uh…” she spoke as she held onto Murphy harness trying to pull her away from Roy. “Just come in,” she waved.  
He hesitated for a few beats and finally made his way inside, slowly guiding Thea to the large sofa in the living room. She quickly shut the door after letting go of her dog and made her way to the couch. She picked up her phone and tried Oliver, knowing that her “husband” would most likely not answer his phone, especially a call from her. She looked at Thea, who was still hugging Roy while Murphy continued inspecting or more molesting him with her lack of respect for personal space. 

“Come here,” Felicity said as she motioned the younger Queen towards the end of the couch she was seated on. Thea crawled into her arms and as Felicity gently stroked her hair, she exchanged a look with Roy. Having Thea’s attention otherwise occupied, Roy seemed visibly relaxed; slowly petting Murphy while Bernie was lying by his feet. 

She traced circled on Thea’s back and tried to soothe her. Sometime in the next hour, Roy left for Verdant. When Thea’s sobbing stopped, she spoke.

“Do you want to talk about it?” wiping Thea’s tears. The young Queen pulled back and looked her Felicity with her big brown eyes. 

“Where is Ollie?” she asked. 

“He isn’t here, Thea.”

“But it’s a Friday. Shouldn’t he be spending time with you?” 

“Well, a good husband would probably spend time with his wife,” she mused, until she realized what she had just said, “NOT that your brother isn’t a good husbandHe’s great! He just always wears me out.” She rewound what she’d just said in her head. Oh lord. “Not that he is wearing me out with wild sex or anything. He is NOT doing that. At all.” 

Thea just raised an eyebrow and gave her a look. 

“No, no, no…” Felicity continued, waving her hands around like a mad woman. “We have sex. Sex sex. All the time. Well, not ALL the time. But a decent amount of sex. Uhm…what I mean to say is that we have normal…sex, not the wild kind. And I’m going to stop now.” Oh great. You just told your sister-in-law how her brother likes to have sex. Correction – fake sex. 

For her part, Thea looked dumbfounded. The silence was broken when Thea asked, “Do you breathe or do you just go on babbling?”

Felicity let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “You know, that’s not the first time I’ve been asked that question,” she said with a smile. “So, do you want to talk about whatever is troubling you with me, your mostly crazy new sister-in-law with a mouth that runs a mile a minute, or do you want to drown your sorrows with my famous ice-cream sundae’s and a Friends marathon?”

“I love Friends,” she replied, smiling timidly. In that moment, she looked much younger than herself and Felicity felt sorry for the girl not having her brother to support her now. 

An hour later, Thea and Felicity had eaten through two tubs of ice cream and were laughing their eyes out after an episode of Friends just came to an end. Netflix was prompting the “Do you wish to continue?” question on the screen and Felicity was reaching for the Apple TV remote when Thea began speaking. 

“I don’t want to be alone,” she said, in almost a whisper. 

Felicity turned to face her, not saying a word, but listening. 

Thea continued. “When the Gambit went down, I was all alone. One day, I had a mom, dad, and a brother, and then, I lost all three of them. My mom was there, but she wasn’t. It was like I was living with a ghost. I remember crying to bed every night the first year Ollie was gone. Sometimes, it got so bad, I had to go sleep next to Raisa. Things got better with Walter around though, but I never got my mom back. Then Ollie came back, but I never go my brother back you know? Everything seemed so complicated. Family isn’t supposed to be complicated right? After the Glades, I hated her. How could she do that to all those people? I thought she was a monster…but now that I finally understand why she did it…now that I ‘m finally getting my mom back, they want to kill her! Kill her, Felicity! I’m so scared, Felicity. If she dies, I’ll have no one. Ollie will have no one. We’ll be all alone.” 

This time, she did not cry. She said everything she had to say in soft tone with tear slowly tracing a path down her cheeks. Minutes that seemed like hours passed until Felicity do something. She reached out and hugged Thea. “ You had every right to be angry at your mother, Thea, but you made up with her right? Focus on your relationship with her. Don’t think of all the time you will not have with her, think of all the time you have now. Trust me, I know how it feels to lose a mother. And we don’t even know what will happen at Moira’s trial.” She had gone through the fear of not having time with her own mother during her last days in the hospital. Except, she couldn’t do anything about her mother’s cancer. It was out of her hands. Thea, however, did not have to lose Moira. She would make sure of it. How? She did not know. Her hacking skills were rusty, but she would do anything she could to help Moira get out alive. A fierce sense of protectiveness washed over her as she held onto Thea. In that moment, she loved Thea as if she were her own blood. 

Pulling back from the hug, she looked into Thea’s eyes. “And know this, Thea. You will not be alone. Ever. You have your brother. And...if you’ll have me…I’d like to be there for you too. You will never be alone as long as I have a breath left in my body.”  
The second those words left her mouth, Felicity was bombarded with a hug that took her breath away…literally.


	5. 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't own ARROW or characters.

Having spent the night rescuing Laurel from the ‘Doll maker,’ Oliver spent the rest of the night working off steam in the foundry and decided to return to the loft before heading to Queen Consolidated. He made a mental note to take Thea out to lunch after he heard a voicemail from Roy about her having a hard time last night. Standing in front of the door to the loft, he let out a sigh, preparing himself for the inevitable awkward-ness that would fill the space if Felicity were awake. What he found when he walked inside, was definitely not what he expected. But what he saw overwhelmed him. 

In the kitchen, Thea was seated on a barstool, elbows resting on the counter and using her hands to cradle her face. She looked happy. She was listening to Felicity speak enthusiastically talking about some TV show he barely knew about as she flipped pancakes on a griddle. Thea reached down to her plate, already filled with an omelette, strips of bacon and cut fruit, and popped a strawberry in her mouth. 

“I saw that Thea!” Felicity was juggling between multiple pans and barely even turned around, but somehow she knew. 

“Come on, Fee!”

Since when does she call Felicity Fee? I thought they didn’t even like each other! He thought as he walked further in to the loft, making his presence known to Thea. 

“It’s all about the perfect plate, Thea,” she mused as scooped out hash browns from the pans and placed a hefty amount on a side plate and picked up the pancakes from the griddle. “I’m not a morning person. So when I do wake up this early to make breakfast for my new sister, that breakfast is going be nothing short of spectacular,” she said as she turned to face Thea, but the sight of Oliver stopped her in her tracks. 

She froze for a second and the n her posture became rigid. She placed the pig-face shaped pancakes on Thea’s plate and set the hash browns down. She turned to the stove again and pretended to make herself busy. “Breakfast, Oliver?” she asked, trying to keep up the charade in Thea’s presence. 

“I’m good.”

“Nonsense! Ollie, she cooked all this food. You can’t turn down the food your beautiful wife just made,” quips Thea. “See,” she says pointing to her pancakes, “she even made me piggy pancakes” her eyes were both excited and sad as she continued, “just like--”

“—Dad. I remember.”

The kitchen had gone quiet. Just in time, Felicity’s cell phone began ringing. 

“Oh. That’s me!” Her eyes went wide as she noticed who was calling her and she rushed to answer….soon her word vomit began and all Thea and Oliver could make out were a series of “I’m so sorry!”, “I’m so so sorry!”, and “I’m so so so sorry!”

In under a minute, she gathered her things and put leashes on Murphy and Bernie, and rushed out the door with a quick, “There’s plenty of food, help yourselves. And you better finish everything on that plate Thea!” 

Thea laughed while Oliver walked over to the kitchen to make himself a plate. 

“Where were you last night Ollie?”

He walked around with a plate full of food in his hand and took a seat on a stool next to Thea. Before he could answer, Thea started again.

“Are you cheating on Fee? Already, Ollie? I thought you changed? How could you? You really--”

“I’m not cheating on her.”

“Then where were you last night?”

“I…I was just busy at work. Stellmore is not making life easier and with Mom in prison, there is a lot of things that need to be done.”

Thea stared at him for a few seconds. Deciding to believe him, she went back to eating her food. “I like her Ollie.”

Oliver turned to see Thea enjoying the pig-shaped pancakes as she continued, “You know, she says I snore like a pig,” snorting and making pig noises. “When I told her about Sundays with dad, she insisted on making piggy pancakes for me.”

Oliver found himself smiling looking at Thea. All of a sudden she looked like his Speedy again, with pigtails and a toothy smile. As a child, she drove their father crazy insisting she wanted a miniature pig as a pet. Moira had forbidden it. Robert couldn’t see Thea heartbroken so he made it a point to find every Pig themed toy possible and buy it for her. On Sundays, he would make her piggy pancakes just to see her smile. It had become a tradition in the house until he got on the Gambit. 

I should thank Felicity when I see her again he thought. After finishing breakfast, he cleaned up the kitchen and surprisingly Thea helped too. Both Queens had never cleaned up after themselves before so this was one hell of an experience. Felicity insisted on not getting a housekeeper despite Oliver’s insistence and after the whole loft fiasco, Oliver knew that offering to pay for the housekeeper himself would only piss her off even more. So they settled on doing the housework themselves. Of course, Felicity was not tidy person. Not one bit. She left her things everywhere inside her room and sometimes, he could’ve sworn she went to Victoria’s Secret and bought underwear just so she didn’t have to do laundry, but he never said anything. For his part, he was well organized. He didn’t have a lot of things so it was relatively simple. Tatsu’s lessons helped him with laundry. 

Just as he finished loading up the dishwasher, his phone beeped with an alert from Diggle. Promising to meet at the lair around 7pm, he led Thea out of the loft and decided to spend the rest of the day with her.

******

When Oliver descended the steps to the lair, Diggle was already seated at the computers trying to monitor the video feed in the Glades for activity. “What’s the situation John?” asked Oliver, preparing to the hit the streets. 

“I heard whispers that something big going down in the Glades. China White is definitely involved, but there seems to be no movement at all. On the other hand, police channels picked up a robbery on Pearson and Lowry. Looks like they need back up.”

“How many?”

“Three of them are inside. No hostages. They’re threatening to blow the place up if anyone enters.”

“Talk me in.”

******

Oliver returned home before midnight, considerable early in his book. There had been no news on Triad activity and after a relatively quiet night after stopping the robbery, so they setup alerts and on their phones and decided to call it a night. He expected to find Felicity at home, but he walked into the loft only to find it empty. He checked the tracker he had placed on her phone, and it said she was at the loft. He checked the entire loft, clearly she figured out what he had done. Damn this woman! He promised Anatoli he would take care of her and now, he didn’t even know where she was. He didn’t need all of this when he already had so much on his plate. Why can’t she just let me protect her? He called her multiple times but his calls went to voicemail. He started pacing back and forth wondering where he could find her. Maybe her friend…that guy that gave her away…what was his name again? Jake? John? Um...Jason maybe? Maybe he would know. Who would have his number?I’ll check her office first. He picked up her helmet and keys, and head towards the door right as it opened. A disheveled looking Felicity entered flanked by her dogs. His wife wasn’t exactly formal in her dressing choices. In fact, Moira would have a fit if she saw Felicity in her element. Her usual attire involved skinny jeans, a basic tee, and flats. Her hair was usually down when she would head out in the morning, but she would almost always end up pulling it up into a ponytail when she was at work or at a meal. Tonight, however, she had dirt marks on her faded jeans and hair was sticking out of her ponytail.

 

“Where the hell were you?” he shouted. His voice came out harsh that he had wanted it to, but he was worried. 

“Excuse me???”

“You were supposed to be home!”

“I can be wherever I want to be, thank you very much!” she replied, crossing her arms and glaring at him after unleashing the dogs.

“Not if I have something to say about it. Where were you?”

“Didn’t the little tracker tell you?” she said, looking pleased with herself while she toed off her shoes and walked to the kitchen. “I must say, Ana overestimated your capabilities.”

There was no point denying what he had done. Honestly, he didn’t care what she felt, he had a promise to keep and he would go to any means necessary to keep it. “Well, since you clearly removed the tracker, I will just have to find you a bodyguard to follow you around.”

“You wouldn’t,” turning to face him with an incredulous look on her face, “Ana promised.”

“He did, but you’re being unreasonable. Either you have a bodyguard following you around, or you sit at home.”

“I hate you!” she screamed and stomped towards her room. 

“The feeling is mutual,” he replied heading in the opposite direction to his own room. Both doors slammed shut. It was only after stripping down to his boxers and getting to bed that he thought about Felicity’s disheveled look.


	6. 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know this...but still, don't own Arrow or characters.
> 
> I have no BETA so please forgive any mistakes. I post as I write.

Felicity woke to the sound of Bernie and Murphy’s whimpers. She groaned while she stretched and hopped off the bed. Bernie and Murphy were standing by the door, eagerly waiting for Felicity to take them for a walk or at least let them out to the patio garden. She opens her door, shuffling her feet. The dogs rush out while she follows them and opens the glass doors leading to the patio. 

She turns around and yelps when she finds tall, dark haired man standing by the front door dressed in a suit. The man does not react to her sudden outburst. 

“Who are you?” she asks, reaching for some sort of weapon. Can the Apple TV remote do any damage?

“Mrs. Queen, I’m Roger Harrison. I’ll be your bodyguard from this day forward.”

Felicity gave him a once over. Roger bore an uncanny resembles to Liam Neeson and she would be lying if she didn’t mentally replay the iconic scene - “I will look for you. I will find you. And I will kill you” – except this time, she was the girl and Roger was Liam Neeson. 

As much as she would’ve liked to give Roger a hard time, she knew he was only doing what Oliver ordered him to do. She had no trouble giving Oliver a hard time. In fact, she took pleasure in causing him pain. But she wouldn’t do that to anyone else. Besides, she had a lot going on and she told herself she would deal with it when she met Oliver later tonight. 

“Okay then. I’ll be ready in about 30 minutes. And please don’t stand there. It kinda freaks me out. Make yourself comfortable.”

Roger didn’t move. 

Felicity let out a sign muttering, “And here I thought we would paint each others nails and be besties.” 

Much to Felicity’s surprise, Roger seemed to have much more in common with Liam Neeson than she realized. Like Oh-so-sexy-Neeson, Roger also was from Ireland and, thank the lord, had an Irish accent. Al and Justin, both gay and very much the unofficial entertainers at Smoak Inc. found every excuse under the sun to enter the conference room that Felicity was currently using as her office just to catch a glimpse of him. Being classic Felicity, she did a background check on him as soon as they got to the office. 

“Irish huh? Bangers and mash, is it? How weird…to use Bangers in the name of a dish. You know? Bangers…bang? Not that that is where my mind goes when I hear that name. I’m not that sexual. I AM sexual, just not that sexual. Just the normal amount of sexual.” Stop! Talking! About! Sex! she continued, “But still, I would love to devour your sausages.” Instantly realizing what she just said, with eyes as wide as saucers, “By devour, I mean eat, and by your, I meant Irish. Not you! Definitely NOT your sausage. Not that it repulses me or anything. I’m sure it’s quite nice, actually. Irish men and --- Oh my god! I’m not stopping. Why am I not stopping?”   
She looked horrified and avoided eye contact. A few hours passed. If he going to follow me today, then I need to do this. I can’t have him telling Oliver everything he sees. Okay, Felicity. So you talked about his penis. You’re both adults. It’s fine. Just walk up to him and tell him what you expect from him. Easy. She stood up from her chair and walked towards Roger, stopping right in front of him. His eyes were assessing her actions, but he did not move. 

“Look, I know you’re here to protect me, although I don’t need protecting, and unfortunately, you have to follow me everywhere. Right now, there are places I have to go, things I need to do, and my first instinct is to run from you and hide what where I’m going. But I read your file, and I’m pretty sure you will find me and then things will just get awkward. So here’s the deal. These things I need to do…Oliver or Diggle should not know about them. In fact, I’d prefer you don’t tell them anything I do and I understand that you can’t lie to your employer, so I’d like you to work for me while my husband thinks you work for him. You know,” she said, moving her hands in the air to illustrate her point, “like a double agent. If you agree, then I promise I will not prevent you from trying to protect me. I will be as honest as I can be. So there, that’s my offer.”

Roger just looked at her. It was a little unnerving how he met her gaze, not looking away. They stared at each other in silence. This is definitely a staring contest. 

“If this is a staring contest, which I think it is, then I can go on forever Roger. I’m an amazing stare-er.”

His eye twitched. His face was still serious but he finally spoke.

“No lies.”

“No lies.”

“I go wherever you go.”

“Yes. Except the bathroom, cause that would just be weird.” He blinked. She sighed. “Sorry, bad joke.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay, I will not breathe a word of what you do and where you go. My only concern is your safety Mrs. Queen. I have no intention of spying on you.”

“One more thing,” she said, raising her finger at him, looking particularly happy. Roger would never admit it, but she could’ve sworn she saw his serious mask slip. “ Call me Felicity. And please don’t stand by the door all day, it’s making me nervous. Make yourself comfortable.”

“That was more than one thing,” he paused, “Felicity.”

“Oh, I forgot! We drive my car. And I drive.”

“Your car. I drive.”

“Fine. You drive, but I sit in the passenger seat. I’m not going to budge on this.”

He gave her one last look. “The suit stays.” Then he promptly moved to the couch in the conference room and made himself comfortable.


	7. 7

Turns out Roger actually can loosen up. Too bad it took Felicity till the end of the workday to figure it out, but rest assured, she knew they would get along just fine, especially considering their mutual appreciation of Game of Thrones and mutual hatred of George R.R. Martin. Her dogs warmed up to him too, and she trusted the judgment of her dogs more than anyone else. It was half past six and the office was already cleared out. She was the last one in and was just about to contemplate what excuse to use in order to get out of her Cardio Barre class when her phone buzzed. It was Lance. 

“Detective?”

That put Roger on high alert. He looked towards Felicity, but she turned around with her back facing him. All he could hear were silent acknowledgments and then, she turned around and said they were going to Starling Women’s Center. Roger didn’t ask why. He waited for her to collect her things and headed to the car. 

Sitting in the passenger seat, Roger’s new client said nothing. This was unnerving. Even though he had only spent a day with Felicity Queen, he knew she hated one thing…silence. In fact, he wondered how she managed to get any work done in the conference room with Netflix playing in the background, tossing IQ balls for her dogs to play, conversing with him about GoT, and working on her project. So he waited. He was starting to warm up to her. Sure, she wasn’t the uptight, spoiled trophy wife he expected her to be. From her interaction with her co-workers, he could tell she considered them as partners and not employees. Hell, the woman didn’t even have her own office. She insisted on having a desk among the others to encourage a collaborative environment where no person was too big or too small. She insisted on using the conference room today since his “Liam Neeson” vibe (her words, not his) was distracting the others. 

He pulled up right behind a police car outside the Center. Detective Lance was waiting, leaning against the car and sipping on a coffee. 

“You can stay here. I’ll be back in about an hour,” she said, stepping out of the car. 

“I’d feel more comfortable going with you.”

“Don’t worry. Detective Lance will be with me the whole time. You stay here with the dogs.”

He watched as she approached the detective and both headed into Starling Women’s Center. Meanwhile, Murphy jumped into the passenger seat and Bernie made his way into Roger’s lap. Petting Bernie, he wondered out loud, “What is she doing in there?”

******

 

Roger was becoming well acquainted with Starling’s Women’s Center. Sitting by himself in the lobby, he casually flipped through the old magazines that covered the side tables while waiting for Felicity to return from her now daily visits. For 6 days he had driven Felicity straight to the center from work. She refused to let him accompany her further into the center, but let him do a security check and wait for her in the lobby. A loud bang of a door shutting alerted him and he was out of his chair. 

He looked in the direction of the sound to find Felicity Queen running towards the front desk with a panicked expression on her face. 

“Mary. I need to speak to Mary. Right now!” she said, pointedly to the petite young brunette manning the front desk. 

“Ma’am, Mary is bu-“

“I don’t care if she is busy. Someone is missing. You know what? Just tell me where she is and Ill go there myself.”

Roger walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. She flinched and turned around. “Roger. You…need…I need your… help,” she said, while controlling her breathing. Meanwhile, a sharp looking old woman approached them and cleared her throat. This was Mary Verni, the Director of the woman’s center. 

“Felicity, what seems to be the problem?” she asked, almost too politely. 

“Shi shi! I mean, Shin-wei. She isn’t in there. Did you move her? I’m supposed to be informed if any of them are moved right? Tell me you know where she is. Is she okay? – ”  
“Felicity. Calm down.”

Felicity exhaled. Her shoulders slumped. “Phew! I was worried. So she’s okay. I knew I was overreacting.”

“Why don’t you sit down, sweetie?” Mary led her to the chairs in the reception. Roger followed silently. Felicity sat down, with Roger on her left, while Mary took a seat opposite her. She placed her hand on Felicity’s and slowly spoke, “Felicity, who is Shin-wei?”

Felicity did a double take. “Shin-wei? What do you mean? She was one of the girls I brought in a week ago.” When Mary’s eyes showed no sign of recognition, she continued, “I mean, I know she didn’t speak much, but…you know, red hair, freckles, a little bit shorter than me, sticks to my side all the time? The girl loves chocolate though. I had to practically bribe her with them to get her name.” 

Mary still looked puzzled. 

“Come on! Mary – ” Mary interrupted her with a squeeze of her hand because she could continue. 

Mary took a second and looked from Roger to Felicity before she spoke. “Felicity, you brought in 17 girls last week. I know all of them. I did their paperwork. There is no Shin-wei.”


	8. 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why does Felicity go to to the SWC?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW owns ARROW yada yada yada

Felicity always knew she was gifted. Her photographic memory and high IQ, however, were a gift and a curse. They say with great power, comes great responsibility. That didn’t ring true in this case. To Felicity, with great power comes a great amount of madness. It was that madness that made her question her sanity some times. Right now, looking at Mary’s lips slowly moving, a buzzing sound took over her ears. She nods absentmindedly, shifting her weight. She replays her memories of Shin-wei and mentally checks recollections of Shin-wei. Then, she sits up straight. She doesn’t miss the way Roger reads her stance and prepares to move with her. She waits for Mary to finish before she opens her mouth and says carefully, “Mary, I might’ve over reacted. I haven’t slept in days. I must’ve been mistaken. I apologize for disturbing you.”

Mary seemed a little suspicious of Felicity’s sudden admission of fault but after some reassurances, she leaves. Once she heads into the elevator and the elevator doors shut, Felicity places her handbag on her lap and starts looking for something inside it. 

“Do not react, Roger,” she says, still acting as though she is trying to locate something inside her bag. Roger listens intently, silently perusing their surroundings and wondering why she is suddenly being so cautious.  
“I need you to follow me to the girls’ room when I get up. She was there. Mary is lying. I’m sure of it. Something is wrong.” She digs out her lip balm, uses it, and puts it back in her bag before she starts to walk towards the end of the hallway where the room is located. For the first time, Roger follows her past the lobby. He looks around cataloguing the surrounding and assessing potential threats. The surroundings reminded him of a hospital. The wall were painted in muted colors and had boring painting hung across.

Felicity turned into a room at the end of the hallway and Roger followed. The room looked more like a dormitory, with rows of bunk beds on both sides and a central isle serving as a walkway of sorts. At the end of the aisle, the light shown dimly through the grimy mullioned window onto the grey bedding and the grey, dusty floor. Scattered all across the room were young girls who looked just as lost as might be feeling. Their fearful eyes followed Roger as he stepped into the room with Felicity. 

Felicity took Roger’s hand and spoke, “This is Roger. He’s a friend.” Roger noticed the girls’ bodies relaxing. He looked to Felicity for an explanation when she spoke, “17 girls. From China. I…found….them and brought them here. 18. There were 18 girls…when I found them.”

Roger had seen and heard stories much like the rest of the military, but he knew enough to know that Felicity could not have possibly “found” them. He knew from Mary’s body movements and tone that she wasn’t being completely honest but he did not expect this. Given the words chosen by Felicity, Roger was weaving a story in his head. “So you’re saying,” he spoke, “that you found these girls here in Starling City – ”

“at the docks, actually. But yes.”

“ – and you didn’t call the police – ”

“Of course not. I called the police. Just not all of the police. A police. Detective Lance. I was in a fix, given the nature-”

“So you called Detective Lance and brought these girls here to help them without managing to alert the press, and you’re saying a girl is missing even though the head of this center denies her existence, that the head of this center is lying to you, and that this girl truly exists and I need to help you?”

“Well, look at you talking! And here I was thinking you couldn’t speak more than three words at a time.”

Roger looked unimpressed. 

“Well, if you think about it –” she continued but was interrupted by Roger putting his hand up to shut her up.

“Short answer, Felicity.”

“Yes.”


	9. 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on twitter guys!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Arrow belongs to CW and blah blah blah

There was a fly on the wall. She didn’t notice it when she entered the Starling Police Department to meet with Lance, but now it was hard not to notice. The thing was staring at her. The damn fly was small, with a brownish black body and legs so thin and delicate. She was not a fan of flies. Once she contracted malaria and since then, flies were not her favorite kind of fly. On the other hand, she also believed that flies were some kind of army of soldiers that eavesdropped on secret conversations and carried the information back to super secret lairs possibly run by some CIA-like covert agency working for the government. But that would be a stretch…right? Sitting next to Roger, she was diligently waiting for Lance to return to the interrogation room after listening to her about Shin-wei’s disappearance and Mary’s suspicious behavior. Lance did not doubt her. He actually met the young girl himself and he immediately left the room to go and call some of his sources and put out an APB. That had been two hours ago. 

A knock on the door was soon followed by an upset Officer Lance entering the room. He took a seat at the table across from Felicity and seemed to be mentally bracing himself. 

“Sweetheart,” he began, “we just received a 911 call about a dead body.”

“No.” she interrupted. It wasn’t a loud “No.” It wasn’t a I-refuse-to-believe-it “No.” It was a I-know-with-every-fiber-of-my-being-that-this-cannot-happen kind of “No.”

“Felicity, - ”

“No.” Resolute. 

She felt Roger’s hand on her shoulder. He gave her a gentle squeeze and motioned to Lance move to the other end of the room. They conversed in hushed tones while she sat in her chair staring her at fly that now found a new home resting on her hand as it lay motionless on her lap. After a few minutes, Roger returned to her side. She didn’t even comprehend what was happening, but the next thing she knew, she was in her car and Roger was driving slowly, following a police squad car ahead of them on the road. 

It was a short drive. She refused to look out the window. She did not move a muscle. Roger turned off the engine and walked over to her door. He opened her car door and led her to a building. He had a hand resting on her lower back applying a gentle force to make sure she moved. She walked up stairs, an endless amount of stairs. She saw Lance speaking to her. His lips were moving, but she could hear nothing. A short man in a lab coat walked up to her and introduced himself. 

Officer Lance and Peter Pettigrew (cause duh! He looks like Peter Pettigrew) opened a door and waited for her to enter. She felt Roger’s hand giving her a gentle push. That gentle push brought her back to reality. She looked around her surroundings for the first time, taking in the plain white walls. She shifted her weight uncomfortably on her feet. She focused on Lance and Pettigrew, who were now waiting for her to enter a room as they held the door open. She hesitantly entered the room with Roger. Pettigrew led them further into the room and stopped on the other side of the table in the center of the room. 

Felicity had watched enough crime TV shows to know where she was but she still hoped her gut was wrong. She stopped next in front of the table, right across from Pettigrew while Lance and Roger flanked her on either sides. 

“You ready, sweetheart?” spoke Lance.

She just looked at him and looked back at the table. The autopsy table. A plain white blanket was covering whatever was lying on the table. She waited. Lance gave Pettigrew a nod. Pettigrew removed the blanket delicately. 

She swears she can hear her heart stop, only to start again, loud beats that echo through her body and she wants to shout and scream. She wants to throw things. She wants to hit things. But she does nothing. She just stands there, looking at the dead body of a 19-year-old girl that trusted her.

Lying on the table, Shin-wei suddenly looked so much younger than her age. Her skin was so pale…peppered with dark blue bruises along her slender neck. 

“We need you to identify the body Felicity,” piped in Lance. 

“Yes. It’s her,” she replied. Firm. Strong. That was it. 

She placed her hand on Shin-wei’s forehead before she took a deep breath. She continued, “What happened to her?” 

“Ms. Smoak, I don’t think –”

“I’m her legal guardian. I have a right to know.”

Shifting uncomfortably, the coroner began speaking. “Shin-wei, age 19, found drenched blood in an alleyway on 5th and Mason. No clothing. No personal artifacts. Initial examination showed severe head trauma. Further investigation revealed multiple fractures to the skull and upper extremities caused by something cylindrical. Knife wounds along her abdomen and bruises marring her hands and feet. Trauma and the extend of blood lost indicates time of death about 6 hours ago.”

Swallowing the lump in her throat, she asked, “I need to see.”

“Sweetheart,” began Lance, only to be silenced by her hand. He turned to the coroner and nodded. The coroner gently lifted the white blanket covering the body to reveal the rest of the girl’s fragile body. 

Felicity stood there, staring at the deep knife wounds along Shin-wei’s abdomen, clearly reading ‘REMEMBER.’ She reached around and covered the body back up and walked out of the room. When Lance walked her to her side of the car, she told him what she needed. 

“I’d like to be informed as soon as the investigation is complete. I need to arrange a funeral.” She did not look at Lance, just spoke. Lance nodded and helped her into the car. Once in the car, she whispered, “Home.” It was loud enough for Roger to understand what she was saying. He drove her home.

Walking into the loft, Felicity was greeted by her dogs. They seemed to have read her emotions and just followed her around trying to comfort her. It was 10pm. Roger watched as she scooped out some kibble and prepared dinner for the dogs. She watched them eat as she and Roger sipped on water. Once the dogs had eaten, she cleaned up the bowls and turned to Roger. “You can go home. It’s late and I won’t be leaving the loft.”

“I can stay until Mr. Queen returns,” he urged. 

She shook her head. “I’m fine, Roger. I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

Reluctantly, he left the loft and waited outside the door until he heard the lock click shut before making his way down to his car. He decided to wait in his car, until Mr. Queen came back home. 

*****

She turned up the music in the bathroom and stepped into the glass enclosed shower stall. The hot water hit her skin, almost hot enough to burning her body, but she didn’t move. She endured the pain while her face remained emotionless. There was fly on the shower wall and instantly the floodgates opened. Tears streamed down Felicity’s cheeks as her sobs echoed against he cold glass walls of the shower. She slid down the cold tile wall and curled up into a ball. A lump grew in her throat. Her heart was racing and breaths came in gasps. She tried to reign in her emotions, but all she could see was Shin-wei’s dead body. 

Meanwhile, a tired Oliver just entered the loft. He was greeted by both Murphy and Bernie, both looking at him and them looking towards Felicity’s room door. He took off his coat and bent down to pet them, but they kept trying to direct him to her room. He glanced in the direction they pointed to find Felicity’s door open wide. That’s strange. She never leaves her door open. He walked towards her room and a faint sound of music caught his attention. Cautiously, he stepped into her dark room. A faint light emanated from underneath the bathroom door and the dog now sat in front of the bathroom door, pawing at it. 

In a whisper, Oliver said, “Come on guys,” he waved, “she’s taking a shower. She’ll be back out soon.” 

****

Thirty minutes later, the shower door flew open and Oliver stepped in to turn off the scalding water. Felicity’s forehead remained pressed to her knees. She heard someone calling her name, but she was too lost to respond. Oliver instantly grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her naked body and scooped her up in his arms. Her body continued to tremble and her tears did not stop. She held onto him like he was her life raft and sobbed into his shirt. It wasn’t until he set her down on her bed that Oliver began to panic. Seeing her in the shower, so broken, so helpless, it was like his body worked on autopilot. Get her out of the shower, warm her up. That was his goal. Now that she was covered in a towel and in bed, he tried to move away from her to cover her up with a comforter, but she didn’t let him leave her. Her whimpers broke his heart. 

Ever since his wedding, he never so much as said a kind word to her. He kept up appearances when Thea was around, but apart from that, they were just roommates who didn’t even bother to say the usual “Good morning” or “Goodnight.” Seeing her in such a vulnerable state shook him to the core.

_“You must be Oliver,” said a voice from behind him as he waited for his soon-to-be fiancé to enter Anatoly’s temporary home in Starling City. It had been two days since his meeting with Anatoly when he agreed to marry her. Felicity Smoak. Plastering a fake smile on his face, he turned around and offered his hand to blonde woman standing in front of him. Hesitantly, she shook his hand._

_“Felicity. But you know that already.” She did not sound angry. She sounded like someone who accepted her fate. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to even assume her voice sounded hopeful._

_“Would you like to sit?” he said, gesturing towards to the plush couches in front of them. They moved to take a seat opposite each other. A moment of uncomfortable silence was soon broken by Felicity._

_“Sooo…this is awkward,” she said, chuckling._

_Oliver said nothing, although his lips curved up to a smile._

_“Umm…so, you run Queen Consolidated, right? I mean, you’re mother is in jail, your stepfather left, and your sister is clearly way too young to do it, ” she asked, attempting to start a conversation It took a few seconds for her mind to catch up and a mortified look came over her face, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean that. I mean, I meant that. The part where I said I was sorry…not the part where I…uh…uh-”_

_“Ms. Smoak,” interrupted Oliver, “to answer your question, yes. I do run Queen Consolidated now. I’m here to tell you personally that I accepted your uncle’s proposal and to lay down some ground rules.”_

_“Okay…”_

_“We both know this marriage is a contract, and I assume you’ve heard of my past. I have…specific…taste.” He seemed to be uncomfortable, and then resumed his speech. “So, this,” he said, waving at her outfit, “needs to change. And don’t bother about getting to know me. I’m shallow and everything you hear about me in the news is mostly true. You will also have to sign a legal document, a pre-nup of sorts, except it will have other…details as well. Now, here is the ring,” he said, placing an emerald-cut 7.5 carat diamond and two tapered baguettes set in platinum band, “now, I need to be somewhere. It was nice doing business with you.” He offered her his hand, but she sat there, shocked._

_“Ms. Smoak?”_

_Felicity took a moment and stood up. She walked up to Oliver and looked him right in the eye. “I’m well aware that this arrangement is a contract, Oliver Queen. As for the pre-nup, don’t flatter yourself. I don’t want your money. I do well enough for myself and I am not under the impression that you will change your philandering ways so don’t sweat on the “details”. You sleep with as many skanks as you want, as long as you stay discreet. Unlike you, I have a reputation to uphold.” By the time she was done with her rant, she was fuming. She took a step towards the door, but turned out and poked a finger to his chest and said, “I dress the way I want to dress and if that doesn’t go with your taste, you can take that “specific taste” of yours and shove it up where the sun don’t shine, Queen!” She walked to where he placed the ring and slipped it on. “It was not nice doing business with you.” She turned around without waiting for a response and left the room, leaving Oliver behind._

_To say Oliver was stunned by Felicity’s rant would be an understatement. Sure, he had put on the playboy Oliver Queen façade to make sure he could keep his cover as the Arrow, but maybe he pushed it too far. She definitely had a fire in her that he did not expect. A part of him wanted to follow her and apologize for his behavior, and start over, but another part of him told him being friendly with Felicity would only lead to her asking more and more questions about his whereabouts. It was better for them to maintain a distance and not be a part of each other’s lives. He wasn’t sure what kind of woman he was going to marry, but after meeting Felicity that day he knew…his future wife might not be his usual brunette, she might not be a Victoria Secret Model, but she definitely was a women who would not go down without a fight. And that thought somehow made him proud, even if the marriage would be a farce…_

Thinking about his first meeting with Felicity and how fierce and strong she looked made him wonder what had her crumbling from the inside. He felt her warm tears on his shirt and her breath against his chest. Carefully not to let go of her, he settles himself in the middle of the bed, holding her close, and used his other hand to drape the comforter over them both. He applied pressure to her chest, just above her heart, until her breathing to returned to normal and her body stopped shaking. It didn’t work. Her sobbed continued, filling the room. Whimpering, both Murphy and Bernie found a spot by the foot of the bed and curled up to sleep.

When the trembling subsided, Felicity rested her head on his chest, allowing herself to enjoy the weight of his arms around her. He stayed in the same position, holding her, until he heard her breathing even out enough to indicate she was sleeping. He slowly tried to extricate himself, but a she wouldn’t let him. For a woman so small, his wife truly did have a strong grip. After another try, he gave in when he heard her whisper, “Don’t leave me.” She needed him, and although he was trying to maintain a distance, she was creeping into his life and, dare he admit, his heart. Hearing her expose herself to him, so raw, all the reasoning behind keeping her at a distance became irrelevant. Rubbing soft circles on her back, he whispered, “I’m not going anywhere.” His hand curled in her wet hair, his lipped pressed to her head, his arms wrapped tightly around her waist just over the towel. Felicity let out a deep, shuddering breath as she closed her eyes again. Even with flashes of Shin-wei dead body flashing her mind, with the fear of what would happen next, with the guilt of failing to protect an innocent girl, she found herself feeling safe…safe in the arms of a man she tried every waking minute to ignore and hate. Safe in the arms of her husband.


	10. 10

As sunlight filtered through the blinds in the master bedroom of the Queen-Smoak loft, the two occupants of the large bed in middle of the room lay comfortable in each other’s arms. To a stranger, this sight would be deemed beautiful, but to the occupants of the bed, this was an anomaly. That was exactly how they both felt when a knock on the bedroom door woke them up from their deep slumber. 

Felicity slowly opened her puffy eyes and was puzzled by the view – a very muscular manly chest. It took her a moment to realize who the chest belonged to – her husband. Her very hot husband. She craned her neck to look a this face, only to find him gazing back at her with an unreadable look on his face. They lingered until another knock startled them. Arms that were in each other’s embrace, disengaged and Oliver stepped off of the bed in a flash and slowly opened the door, just enough for him to speak to whoever was on the other side. 

Diggle was waiting on the other side of the door. Seeming unfazed by the view of a shirtless Oliver in the same bedroom as Felicity, he said, “Officer Lance and Miss Lance are here to see Mrs. Queen.”

Oliver froze on his feet. Why would Lance be here? Why the hell is Laurel here? His mind went through several scenarios. Maybe Lance something about why Felicity….this would answer his questions about Felicity’s behavior. I need to have a word with Roger. He nodded to Diggle and turned to face Felicity. She was still wrapped in the towel from the previous night, but now she had the comforter pulled up to cover her as well. Her hair was disarray and her eyes looked puffy. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that she was crying the whole night. Somehow, this view of Felicity made Oliver’s heart swell, but he proceeded anyway, saying, “Officer Lance and Laurel are here to see you.”

Looking down at her lap, Felicity nodded, acknowledging Oliver’s words before meeting his glance. She didn’t move a muscle though and Oliver understood. He walked out of the room and closed the door behind him, giving her privacy to get out of bed. 

 

Rummaging through her closet, Felicity tried to find her comfort shirt. She remembered wearing it the night of her wedding. It was stupid, but it comforted her. Worn out as it was, with all its holes, the shirt was a loyal companion through her years in college when she pulled an all nighter, to nights she cried over break-ups, and even losing her mother. Finally, finding it hiding in the corner of her closet, she gave it one long tug, pulling it out. She smelled it really quick, ensuring it didn’t smell bad. She always laundered here clothes, but never really got to hanging them up – a habit she had tried to kick with no luck. She quickly brushed her teeth, pulled her hair into a messy ponytail, and put on some jeans. Murphy and Bernie were already waiting for her to open her room door, so they can go say hi to the visitors in the house. She stood in front of her door and looked down at her shirt, then at her dogs, and took a deep breath in. Then she opened the door and walked into the living room. 

She was met with five pairs of eyes. Immediately averting her gaze, she shuffled across the room to the sofa opposite the one on which Laurel and Officer Lance were seated on. Murphy and Bernie, of course, ran to say hello to their new guest…Laurel. Murphy, of course, jumped up and down, no doubt, scratching Laurel’s perfectly toned legs trying to get attention, but Laurel seemed to stiffen and pull away. Unfortunately, that is the one thing that makes dog even more eager. Bernie was content, smelling Laurel’s heels. 

Felicity looked at Oliver, standing behind her, and then to Laurel. Hmm. Heels. In the house. Noticing Laurel’s discomfort, Lance turned his attention to Murphy and Bernie. Reaching his hand out he called, “Come here buddies! How’ve you been?” and soon the dogs were receiving satisfying belly scratches….that is until Laurel cleared her throat. 

“Can you put them away please? Or at least control them?” she said, giving Felicity a stern look. 

“I don’t control them, Ms. Lance. They’re my companions. Not my slaves,” she replied and she could see Rogers crack a smile from his position at the main door of the loft. “And putting them away…this is their home. You are a visitor.”

Laurel’s eyes twitched. She moved her gaze to Oliver. “Ollie?”

Taking a moment to think through his response, he said, “Maybe we can meet in your office Laurel?” 

Laurel surely was not expecting that! Oliver not only silently supported his wife, but also politely suggested that she get out of their home. Just the Lance interjected, “Now now, there is no need for that. I wanted this to be out of the offices for a reason. Felicity dear, how about Roger’s takes these two for a walk eh?” he asked. 

Listening to Lance’s voice reminded her of the previous night and all of a sudden she did not want to speak, much less, banter with her husband’s oh-so-beautiful ex-girlfriend. She simply nodded. Roger’s called for the dogs and they soon left the loft for a walk. 

A silence took over the place. Diggle was still by the armchair off to the corner of the living room and Oliver was standing behind her, both wondering why the Lance’s decided to visit the Queens. Lance began the conversation.

“Felicity, as we discussed, we will be bringing charges up against Takami. Since, Shi…the girl is no longer with us, we need the other witness to come forward.”

Oliver and Diggle tensed when Takami was mentioned. He was China White’s right hand man. What did Felicity have to do with him? Did she know the other witness?

“Like I said, I can’t give up the identity of the informer. I gave him/her my word,” she replied.

“We have no case without a witness sweetheart,” he implored. 

Wait. Back up. Sweetheart? Since when did Lance call my wife…scratch that! Felicity, sweetheart? Thought Oliver. He looked at Diggle trying to see if his partner had known anything about what was happening, but the puzzled look in the former soldier’s eyes told him he was just as confused as he was. 

“And like I said, I cannot give up my source.” She remained firm. 

Laurel pressed further, “We need this source. This isn’t one of your games or toys Ms. Smoak! Just give us a name! We’re the law!”

“No.”

“Oliver, tell your wife..”

“Oliver doesn’t know anything.”

“What?”

Oliver stilled. What did he not know? Trying to control his voice he spoke, “What don’t I know?” He directed it at Lance and Laurel. 

Lance did not cower. He met Oliver’s eyes and simply said, “I cannot tell you anything without her permission.”

“Damn right you can! I’m her husband,” he roared.

“Doesn’t matter. I can’t say.”

Oliver was about to unleash his Arrow-voice when he heard his wife-shit!- Felicity whisper. “Tell him.”

Lance softened. “Are you sure?” he asked. 

She nodded. “I trust Oliver and Mr. Diggle. What good did my secrets do anyway?” she said, letting out a dejected laugh.

Then Lance told them. Even Laurel had not known what had happened. All she knew was that Felicity Smoak held valuable information about a witness that would help her put away Starling’s notorious mob criminal. Slowly he began. 

“Felicity contacted me when she first arrived in Starling to help with her “operations”. Her mother had worked with a friend of mine in Los Angeles to help victims and I knew what she wanted to do was noble, so I decided to help her. About two months ago, she called me saying she had a lead on a fairly large shipment of narcotics entering the Starling docks –”

“Wait, what do you mean she got a lead?” quizzed Laurel.

“She has her…ways,” he said, uncomfortably, and continued, “Anyway, we waited. I patrolled the areas we narrowed down, put out word among my informants, and three weeks ago, we got them.”

“You got them?” asked Diggle. It seemed too simple.

“Yes, we did. I radioed in some suspicious activity at the docks and had a small group go in and take out the men guarding the shipment. Takami wasn’t there. All the Intel we collected was right. We seized over 800 pounds of marijuana from the shipments.”

“I thought your foundation was about helping women and other victims?” Laurel said to Felicity in an accusatory tone.

Lance answered that question too. “She is, but she keeps an eye out for anything that provides income to gangs or mobs that engage in human trafficking. Many of them use drugs as a means to keep women in a drugged state so they can’t escape, then they use their addiction to the drug to keep them from going to the police and keep working for them. The drugs and weapons feed the monster. She wanted to cut off the drugs and weapons…cut off the food that empowers the monsters, and –”

Oliver completed the rest - “and the monster falls on it’s own.” 

“That still doesn’t explain-” 

“Laurel…I’m not done yet,” said Lance. Just as he was about to continue, Felicity spoke. ‘Two weeks ago, I was working late. Everyone had left and it was pouring rain. The electricity shut off. Murphy was scared you see…thunder scared the crap out of her. So we walked together to the fuse box. Of course, like a bad horror movie, the fuse box is in the back of the offices in this little room that opens into the alleyway,” her voice shook. She breathed deeply and startled when she felt a large hand on her shoulder. It was Diggle’s. He gave her a reassuring squeeze and although she had only exchanged polite hello’s and greeting with the man, she felt at ease. She continued. “That’s when I saw her. Well, Bernie and Murphy saw her I suppose. She was soaking wet. Trembling. Tiny little thing. Usually Murph is all jumpy when she sees someone new. But that night, it was like they knew…they just walked up to her like they knew she was scared and curled up next to her…trying to warm her…I think. I followed them to the dark corner with my phone, and…she was just a girl. I managed to turn on the lights and slowly moved her to kitchen. She didn’t speak. Sickly little thing. Of everything I gave her, she picked a Snickers bar and inhaled it.”

“I thought I’d bring her home with me, but she refused to get in the car with me. She kept pointing in another direction. I gave up after a few minutes and let her lead me…” before she could finish her sentence, tears rolled down her eyes and she covered her mouth with her hand. Lance, knowing how hard it was for her to re-live that night, continued where she left off. 

“The girl, Shin-wei, led her to an alleyway of a Chinese restaurant in the Glades called Hop Woo.”

Diggle and Oliver’s eyes widened in recognition. It was the same restaurant that Oliver had visited with Tommy. It was a front for the Chinese Triad.

“There was a false bottom by the drains. Inside…17 girls. No older than 15. She sent me a distress signal immediately. Even managed to get a few of them out. One of the men in the restaurant must have come out for a smoke…saw them and attacked her. She managed to hit him before…um…I got there before the others. Told her to move away from the scene. Didn’t want her being recognized as Queen’s wife and make her a possible target. Got the girls to the Women’s Center. The other girls were too scared, but Shin-wei, she got attached to Felicity. Who wouldn’t ya know?” he said, trying to lighten up the mood. “Um..she…”

“She trusted me,” said Felicity.

“She came forward and offered to be a witness against Takami. She was a better bet than Felicity’s source as a witness. Since it was so late at night and in the far side of the Glades, we managed to keep the press out of it. We contacted the DA, got statements…the works. No one knew she was the key witness. We had taken precautions. But…”he grew uncomfortable. 

“But she died anyway. She trusted me and I failed her,” said Felicity. 

Laurel gasped. Lance looked to the ground and sank in his seat. Digg tightened his hold on Felicity, whom he was slowly beginning to realize was much braver than he thought. Oliver stood motionless. Her words resounded in his ears. She trusted me and I failed her. The woman he had married via contract, the woman he belittled on purpose, the woman he had mistaken to be a vulnerable porcelain doll in fact was the female embodiment of courage. He saw her in a new light, but also saw the pain she was in. A pain much familiar to him. He too knew what it felt like to have failed someone. Looking only at the back of her head, staring at her ponytail, he wondered, how could I have been so wrong about her? Everything about last night had suddenly fallen into place. He was still concerned about a lot of aspects of the situation, but he was sure of one thing. Felicity Smoak deserved better than the way he was treating her, and she needed him to support her. And that he would do.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the delay. Had a bad two months. So much happened in my life that I had to check out my mind a little. Focus on myself before I could focus on another world. Here is a chapter. I know its short, but more soon. Maybe even by Sunday.

Two whole days had passed since the “incident.” Oliver tried to get more than a line across to his wife, but was not successful. Felicity left the house and returned home at times that were weird even by Oliver’s standards. Every night, after a mission, he told himself “Today is the night.” But every time he walked in to find an empty apartment, he went straight to bed. Even when he woke up upon hearing her enter the apartment with the dogs, he knew she needed time to process it. Besides, he would be lying if he believed his own hesitation never played a part. Of course it did.

All that changed on third day. It was 8pm when Oliver returned home. The mission he had planned with Diggle was called off and he work at the office piled on. For the first time in a long time, Oliver spent an entire day in the office with no Arrow business to give his attention. He swiped the key card his wife had setup to unlock the door to his loft fully expected it to be empty. He opened the door to darkness. Letting out a sign, he dropped his coat on the coat rack he insisted on getting for the apartment, left his briefcase on the side table and made his way to the kitchen for a cold beer, not even bothering to turn on the lights. He had the layout memorized. He could navigate the entire loft with his eyes closed and he found the darkness soothing. Sure, nights on the island were filled with fear of wild animals waiting to pounce and eat you for dinner, but nights were also filled with stargazing. The stars. The only idea that connected him with Laurel, maybe just his “people.” The very idea that at some point or the other, his loved ones would be staring at the same stars as him gave him comfort. One of the perks of living in the penthouse loft was the private garden that had a beautiful view of the sky. Now that was what Oliver needed in addition to the beer to put a beautiful end to his day. 

Navigating through his fridge filled with cans of Coke and bottles of orange juice, he finally finds a bottle and heads out into the garden. Walking towards the fire pit in the middle of the garden, Oliver spots a lump. With his next step, the lump is alert and he now finds himself staring at eyes…Murphy. Instantly, the dog is setting off to meet him. Unlike her usual behavior, Murphy is somber. She takes small steps and meets Oliver halfway and looks up at him with sad eyes. In all the time he had spent with Felicity, Oliver knew one thing. Felicity was hard to read only when the person didn’t know where to look. Bernie and Murphy were the windows into her soul. Looking into Murphy’s eyes, Oliver knew what was ahead of it. Rounding the fire pit, he finds himself in front of an empty lounger. In the lounger right beside it is a dazed-looking Felicity staring at the stars. Bernie is curled up in her lap. As he moves to take a seat on the empty loungers, Bernie looks up with his eyes and looks back down again. But Felicity doesn’t give him a reaction. Cautiously, he takes a seat with his beer in hand. 

For what seems like hours, they remain seated…in silence. Slowly, he sees Felicity power up her iPad. After a few swipes, she places the iPad on the table between their chairs. Oliver looks up at her, but she is not looking back at him. She slowly stands up and he hears her. Just above a whisper.

“Ryan Miller.”

He blinks. Pause. He looks at her again in confusion.   
“He is the leak.”

It dawns upon him. Her somber mood. Sitting in the darkness. She found the man responsible. 

“Good. I’m confident Lance will bring this Ryan to justice.”

She shook her head. 

Oliver is confused. “You did give this to Lance right?”

She shook her head again. 

“I’m giving it to someone else.”

Dread. That was what he felt. Someone else. It could not be. There was no way she could know his true identity. No way. He had taken all the precautions. Even more than necessary. So, of course, he plays it off in true Ollie style. 

“I don’t understand.” 

“You do.”

There was no hesitation or doubt in her eyes. This was a woman who was sure. Sure of who found the man that betrayed the justice system. Sure of the kind of man she vowed to spend the rest of her life with. Without a shadow of doubt.

She spoke those two words with certainty and looked into her husband’s eyes for a moment. Then, she turned around and walked away. 

A stunned Oliver Queen let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding. 

24 hours later, Ryan Miller surrendered himself to Lance claiming to have felt the fear of God. He was also bruised and beaten, but Lance didn’t care. 

That same night, when Oliver returned home, he saw Felicity playing with Bernie and Murphy while sitting on the living room floor. She was smiling. For the first time in a long time, even if only for a moment, he didn’t see himself as a monster anymore.


	12. 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm back!

Ryan Miller was in prison. And her husband aka The Arrow had put him there. 

Felicity was not an idiot. It was right in front of her eyes. And she wasn’t going to marry someone without thoroughly investigating him first. One week into the wedding, she had doubts. He came home late – sometimes with bruises on his arms or his face or even limping. He often just walked to his room after they exchanged pleasantries but a mere glance at him was enough to know he was spending his nights doing more than just entertaining hordes of women. 

It took a few camera searches and following him to his so-called secret area of operations to figure out what she already knew to be true. Her husband was the Arrow. It didn’t change anything though. He was still an ass. A grade A ass, but an ass who put Ryan Miller away. She momentarily considered asking him for his help when she first encountered the girls that night, but something got in the way. Was it pride? Maybe. But it was also because she knew he didn’t respect her or even like her. Not that she cared, but she also preferred to work with the system and the law. The law and the police had failed her and then she had no choice. 

If there was one thing she knew about her husband, it was that he was a good man. Ass or not, he was constantly putting his life on the line to protect others and for that she respected him. Hell, even her dogs like him. Of course, Mr. Diggle helped her come to that conclusion much more easily. 

A day after she had told her story to Laurel, Oliver and Mr Diggle, the latter had paid her a visit at her offices. 

Knock knock.

Felicity looked up to see Mr. Diggle knocking on her desk. 

“Mr. Diggle,” she acknowledged. 

He smiled, “Call me Digg,” he said as he looked around to see her surrounded by other employees of Smoak Limited. “How about some ice cream?”

Many often found it puzzling that Felicity did not have a private cabin, but she had insisted on being one of team. She didn’t ay barriers between her and her team. It also, of course, meant no privacy. But Digg’s offer to buy her ice cream made her wonder.

“Why ice cream?”

“Well, a credible source tells me Salt & Straw’s salted caramel pecan is your favorite and I’d like to talk to you privately.”

“Salt & Straw is not private.”

“You know what I mean Felicity. You get ice cream and a handsome man to accompany you, what have you got to lose?”

“Okay, let’s get Roger,” she said as she grabbed her purse. 

“One bodyman should be enough for this trip. Besides, I cleared it with him”

She looked at Roger. He was sitting at the corner of the loft. He caught her eyes and nodded. 

“Okay – let’s go.”

The store was a 10 minute walk from her office and Digg and Felicity fell into step.

“What you did for those girls was brave Felicity.”

“They were brave. She….was brave. I was stupid. I should’ve insisted that she stay with me. I should’ve taken care of her.”

“Trust me, I know what you’re feeling right now. I’ve been there. Every time I lost a brother in combat or failed to save a civilian or watched innocent’s be killed in the name of war, I felt the same way.” He looked down, took a deep breath, and looked at her, “I know it’s hard to live with Oliver, I know your arrangement, and I’m sorry for everything you’re going through, but there is only one way to get past this and that is to open up to the people around you. They understand much more than you think. And,” he paused, “I’d like to be your friend, if you’d let me.”

Those last words made her smile. She always thought Mr. Diggle was sweet. He was polite and courteous. It’s stupid but he drove her and Oliver to their loft after the wedding. When she had gotten into the limo, he handed her a burger and a coke and said he had noticed how she hadn’t touched her food at the wedding. Any man who gave her a burger and a coke was a friend in her book – but now it was official. 

“Mr Diggle,” she cleared her throat and continued, “Digg – I would love to get to know you.”

Two days later, she told Oliver Queen about Ryan Miller. 

Dig did good.


End file.
